Six big things: Sequoia's year of massive IPOs continues

There's a reason Sequoia is one of the most famous venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. From Apple to PayPal, the firm has spent decades identifying and investing in startups that go on to become household names.

Its hit rate isn't perfect. But this year, Sequoia's portfolio has already produced a handful of companies that went public at enormous valuations—and another is soon on the way.

If you're going to name your firm after a tree, you might as well go big.

Sequoia was an investor in Dropbox, which debuted in March at a valuation of more than $8 billion. The firm also backed Eventbrite, which debuted in September at an estimated $1.75 billion valuation, as well as Guardant Health, which reached a $1.6 billion valuation with an October offering. Throw in the $1.25 billion valuation achieved by cybersecurity provider Carbon Black in May and the $500 million figure established by ARMO Biosciences in January, and that's over $13 billion in combined US IPO value across just five offerings.

The numbers get even bigger when you cross the Pacific Ocean. Sequoia was an investor in several Chinese companies that conducted IPOs this year, including Meituan-Dianping and Pinduoduo, which had reported initial valuations of $53 billion and $23.8 billion, respectively. And what about non-IPO exits? Microsoft bought the Sequoia-backed GitHub for $7.5 billion earlier this year, while bike-rental provider Mobike sold for $2.7 billion, to give two high-profile examples.

Add it all up, and it's nearly $100 billion in exit value. The fact that another Sequoia portfolio company from Utah is about to add to the tally is one of six big things to know from the past week in VC:

1. Qualtrics surveys the IPO landscape

That company is Qualtrics, a provider of survey and questionnaire software that this week revealed its intent to raise as much as $495 million in an upcoming offering on the NASDAQ, which could value the business at around $5 billion. Qualtrics claims a who's who of VC backers, with Accel and Insight Venture Partners joining Sequoia in holding significant pre-IPO stakes.

2. From the boardroom to the ballot box

Two former venture capitalists were up for election to major positions on Tuesday. One found more success than the other. JB Pritzker, a billionaire co-founder of Pritzker Group Venture Capital, defeated former private equity bigwig Bruce Rauner by a healthy margin to become the next governor of Illinois. Josh Harder, meanwhile, a one-time vice president at Bessemer Venture Partners, appears on his way to a defeat at the hands of incumbent Jeff Denham in the race to represent California's 10th District in Congress, trailing Denham by a little more than 1,000 votes on Thursday with all precincts reporting.

3. SoftBank's deal flurry

It's almost as if Masayoshi Son's megalith is trying to drown out the ongoing talk of its connections to Saudi Arabia in the only way it knows how: by spending billions of dollars. SoftBank used its Vision Fund to invest $1.1 billion this week in View, a maker of smart windows, while reports emerged days later that the investor wants to participate in a funding for Hellobike that could total $400 million. And at the tail end of last week, SoftBank cooked up a $375 million investment in robotic chef startup Zume Pizza.

Mmmm, pizza

4. Car companies embrace the future

After already spending (and committing to spend) billions of dollars on autonomous vehicle technology, Ford has now decided to take electric scooters for…well…for a Spin, paying a reported $100 million to buy the San Francisco-based startup. Another transportation upstart with a four-letter name, Grab, raised $250 million earlier this week from auto giant Hyundai to support its ridehailing and payments businesses, then brought in $50 million more mere days later from Thailand's Kasikorn Bank.

5. Instacart fills up on Google alums

After each spending more than a decade at Google, Dave Sobota and Varouj Chitilian both made the jump to Instacart this week, with Sobota becoming the grocery delivery company's first VC of corporate development and Chitilian its first VP of engineering. And on Wednesday, Instacart announced plans to expand its grocery pickup and delivery offerings nationwide during 2019. Fresh off a $7.6 billion valuation, those high hopes make sense.

6. Gaming at the wheel

Does a company with the slogan "Play games while you drive" sound absolutely terrifying? It does. Did just such a company raise $4 million this week from a group of firms that includes Founders Fund and Index Ventures? It did. Does the fact these are voice-based games make me feel better? It does not. What about the "Please play responsibly and drive safely" disclaimer on the Drivetime website? Again, nope. Maybe self-driving cars are the answer after all.